Blue Sky
by jinxedklutz
Summary: Jack has a problem expressing how he feels towards Daniel, and an alien psychologist tries to help him out. But can Daniel deal with the results of her meddling? And more to the point, can Jack? [confusing friendship fic]


**Blue Sky (Otherwise known as: O.I.E, The O'Neill Intelligence Exam)**

The sky was blue; it just wasn't your _usual _blue.

General Jack O'Neill squinted up at the brilliancy called the firmament then slipped his sun-glasses onto his face. Teal'c mentioned, "The sky does appear to be an incredibly bright shade of blue."

"My thoughts exactly," Jack muttered, while pretending to adjust the strap of his P-90.

Carter said brightly, "Aren't you glad you decided to visit?" Then a moment later, she launched into a scientific explanation for the sky's unusually vivid appearance.

"Carter," Jack snapped in slight irritation, "It's nice," he added more calmly. "Let's just leave it at that."

"Right, sir," Colonel Samantha Carter agreed, ducking her head in a sheepish fashion. However, he detected the tail end of a mischeivous grin.

'She's deliberately baiting me,' he realized fleetingly. It brought a small, answering smile to his face, and the smile that had been tugging at Carter's lips transformed into the grin that it was meant to be.

"This way to the town, sir," she said, motioning with her own rifle. And, he noticed, effectively changing the subject.

"It is unfortunate that Daniel Jackson could not be here to see the spectacular display above," Teal'c said, sounding oddly melancholy for him.

Daniel was offworld with another SG team, probably up to his elbows in artifacts and dust. The sort of thing that made Daniel jump up and down with glee. Well, not literally, but that was the idea.

"Oh, I'm sure Carter's taken lots of pictures," Jack comforted the muscular man.

"Actually, sir, I filmed it... It's a more accurate form of documentation."

"Right," Jack answered, "I knew that..."

And he had, really.

_blue skies_

It was a moderately good hike to the town. By the time they got there, Jack was perspiring and a little out of breath. Yikes, he really needed to pay more attention to his health... Sitting behind a desk had managed to take its tole on him already. Bloody desk.

"So, Carter, these people... They're really decent, right?"

"Of course, sir," she answered, giving him a slightly pensive look.

"I just mean, they're not going to pop out with some secret agenda or other evil plan, are they?"

Sam chuckled. "No-o," she answered, slowly. "The Azurians are normal, decent folk, who just want to ally themselves with us. For a change..." she added, wryly.

"Good," Jack offered, with a curt nod.

_blue skies_

And, it turned out, Carter seemed to be right about them. They weren't too evasive, and they weren't too open. They were just right. Maybe that was why Jack still felt suspiciously nervous. Or was it nervously suspicious?

"Sir, Arelian wants to show me some of their scientific achievments," Carter began, her eyes looking overly wide and shiny. 'Can I go, huh, huh? Please can I go?'

Jack motioned toward the door of the foyer where they'd been having negotiations or tea or whatever it was, with the Azurians. "Go ahead; have fun," he told her, smiling a bit at her inability to contain her excitement.

She smiled and nodded. "Thank you, sir," she said, and sped off with the greying scientist.

"Teal'c," Jack said, acting on his uneasy feelings, "Why don't you keep Carter company? I'll just stay here and chat with..." he glanced at the remaining individuals in the room, and saw that only a woman was left, seated on one of the couches.

The woman nodded at him. "Alexia," she informed him.

"Er, Allie," Jack finished his order to Teal'c. Teal'c inclined his head and strode off in the direction Carter and Arelian had skipped away in.

Jack turned to Alexia, smiled politely, and said, "So..."

She patted the space on the couch next to her, and said, "I am a sort of healer to the Azurian people. Would you like to confide in me?"

"Hunh?" Jack wondered, but came around the glass and silver coffee table to sit beside her.

She laughed a bit, and it sounded unfeigned and full of amusement. "Do you not have such physicians on Earth? Ones that tend to the mental rather than the physical?"

"Oh," Jack realized, "You're a head shrinker."

She chuckled again. "On Azuria, the dorogatory term is mind-manipulator."

His brows shot up, and she grinned. "That doesn't exactly make me want to open up to you, you know."

She nodded. "You wouldn't have, anyway. You are one who holds much of himself behind the physical aspect."

"Mmm," Jack muttered, uncooperatively.

_'Do you not wish it to be otherwise?'_

Jack was so startled by the words that were not quite spoken aloud, that he jumped from the divan and whipped around to stare at Alexia. She blinked, serious grey-blue eyes gazing up at him steadily.

"Why?" he questioned, "I mean, how did you do that?"

Instead of answering right away, she patted the couch again. Once he'd reseated himself, she replied, "I'm a telepath, among other things. The Azurians call it knowledge gained by means other than the five senses, or non5S."

"Interesting," Jack murmured, meaning it really wasn't.

She nodded unbelievingly. "I think that perhaps your life, and the relationships you've established throughout it, have suffered somewhat from your inability to express yourself without pretense."

"Oh?" Jack said, but he was thinking, 'She should really mind her own business...'

"I should, but I find myself with a similar dilema to your own." Ignoring O'Neill's surprise, she continued, "I always wish to analyze and help solve other's issues rather than dealing with my own. So," she finished firmly, "What have you decided? I assure you, I will not harm you."

Jack held up a hand. "I'm only curious; what did you plan to _do_ to me, exactly?"

"I will touch your mind with my own, and attempt to dissolve, unpainfully, all of your primary... facades."

'Well, when she puts it like that...' "_Un_painfully? Does that mean it _could_ be painful?" Jack inquired, scathingly.

"No, I said that to reassure you, not to make you doubt; you are a troublesome patient." She gave him a small frown, and he shrugged.

"If something, and I still don't plan on doing this, but if I did, and something went wrong, would you be able to reverse your..." He twirled a finger in the air. "Mind-manipulation?"

"Yes, it is only a matter of changing your conditioning." She sighed and waited.

It wasn't that he was actually considering this, but he was. And that sort of made him wonder, was his life really that empty? Well, no, it wasn't, but it could certainly use some adjustments, especially in regards to his relationships or lack thereof. But was all that really worth having his mind messed around with?

Hadn't he had to put up with enough of that from the Goa'uld and the Tok'ra, and countless other interfering aliens?

But maybe something was telling him trust her, even though every _other_ instinct was telling him that this was just another would-be alliance gone bad. Didn't Carter hold the belief that you never knew who would be a friend or who you could trust or not until you took a chance on them?

Oh, and he _knew_ what Daniel would do in any similar situation: jump in blindly and head first. What about Teal'c? Maybe he would say something like, "She does not appear to mean you any harm, O'Neill."

So, pretty much, the decision was left up to him, 'cause heck if he was going to listen to a pair of inquisitive scientists and a strangely naive Jaffa.

So then why was he suddenly saying, "Okay, give it your best shot, Allie"?

She smiled almost triumphantly and leaned in toward him. Her pupils dilated almost to the rims of her irises, and her mouth dropped open a bit like Daniel's did sometimes. And then everything inside him became calm like the silence that came when he was asleep, and he thought he heard her speaking, _'Only a moment more, General O'Neill...'_

And then, somewhere, he heard a sharp breeze pick up, and a twig snapped. He blinked, and Alexia said, "I'm finished."

"Well, that was...really...anticlimactic," he enthused.

She snorted then said, "My work will begin to take effect soon. Do not be alarmed if you are...unable to refrain from _saying_ certain things."

Jack narrowed his eyes at her, but she only continued to watch him, inscrutably. He twisted the corner of his lip up at her, wryly, but was saved from trying to make after-the-fact small talk because Carter and her scientist friend came walking back into the room with Teal'c.

"Sir, are you ready to head back to the Stargate?" she wondered, pausing in front of him, and lifting her brows, questioningly.

"Oh, you know me," he told her, "I'm getting too old to party like I used to..." Carter cracked a smile, and he stood, facing Alexia. "Guess I'll be seeing you later, Allie."

Alexia rose and inclined her head to him. "It was a pleasure meeting you, General." But when her lips stopped moving, she said, _'Behave yourself, O'Neill.'_

He pretended he hadn't heard that last and followed Carter and Teal'c. He waved over his shoulder and thought as hard as he could, 'Smart aleck.'

As he passed through the doorway, he thought he heard laughter.

_blueskies_

Daniel was having trouble figuring something out.

And that wasn't really _like_ him because, usually, he could decipher many things, if not immediately, with only a little added effort. But the more he thought about this certain problem, the more it confounded him.

Maybe that was because it had to do with one very convoluted Jack O'Neill.

"O-_kay_... Why do you suddenly want to spend '_guy time'_--" He made bunny ears of the index finger and middle finger on both hands and hopped them up and down once. "--with me?"

Jack sighed dramatically. "It's okay, Daniel, I don't mind, really. If you don't want to come over, that's fine." Was it just a trick of Daniel's imagination, or did Jack sound pathetically disappointed?

"Jack, uhm, it's not that I don't want to... I'm just wondering why _you _want to..." He pursed his lips and tilted his chin upwards in a questioning manner.

Jack drummed his fingertips on Daniel's desk and shifted his weight to his other leg. "No special reason..." He _did_ sound disappointed, and not just that, a little depressed, too.

"All right," Daniel put an end to the suspense, "I'll come over."

Jack's face lit up with a huge grin. "Great! I'll order pizza and we'll watch something... a hockey game--" A frown crossed over the General's visage, and he said, "Unless you want to watch something else."

'What is _with_ him?' Daniel exclaimed mentally. "Jack, you didn't _eat_ anything _unusual_ while you were on PX7-2688, did you?"

The General looked suspiciously like he was holding something back. "_No_...," he said though.

Daniel narrowed his eyes at Jack, but it didn't seem to make any impact on the older man. "Fine. Shall we go?" he questioned.

Jack smiled largely and nodded. Daniel stared at him for a moment before getting to his feet, grabbing his denim jacket and slipping it on. "Ready," he told Jack, and his friend dropped a hand onto Daniel's shoulder as they left his office.

_Blue skies_

'He's smarter than you thought he was. Why does that bother you so much?'

Daniel couldn't wrap his mind around one thing. He'd known Jack was smarter than he let on, all this time they'd been acquainted. But until now, he hadn't realized _how_ intelligent. The very thought was enough to give his own ego a huge dent. 'Cause how clueless did that make him not to have seen through the ruse?

He watched Jack from his position on the lawn chair set up on his friend's back porch. Jack was making _something_ on the barbeque grill, but Daniel couldn't decipher what it was from its burnt odor. Another point taken off from his IQ.

Or maybe they should just make another test, he conjectured. A test to test how smart you were based on how well you could see through all of Jack O'Neill's bull. Yeah, that was it. And now that he looked at it from that perspective, Daniel wondered why he hadn't figured it out before.

Possibly because, if he actually took the "O'Neill Intelligence Exam", he would have failed.

A breeze flicked his hair forward, and Daniel pushed it back again with his left hand. He left the hand up there to shade his eyes from the lowering sun, and called out to Jack, "Why didn't you ever tell me that you knew Spanish?" He couldn't keep the accusatory tone out of his voice.

Jack glanced back at him, lowering his gaze back to the grill rather sheepishly it appeared. "I thought you knew," he hedged.

He _should_ have known, Daniel realized. After all, when Jack had come to rescue Daniel out of the hands of the Cubans, he must've had to speak _some_ Spanish... He'd originally come alone, after all. But then, maybe Daniel had assumed, without really analyzing it, that he'd had a translator.

And then, just a little while ago, Jack had said, rather goofily, when they'd arrived at his house, "Ya estamos, mi amigo, Daniel. ?Queres algo de comer?Un cerveza?Barbacoa?" Or in English: "We're here now, Daniel, my friend. Do you want something to eat? A beer? Barbecue?"

Daniel had given him a double take and exclaimed, "That's Spanish! And your pronunciation is almost flawless!"

Jack had blushed a bit but said, "Thank you." And Daniel was left staring at him with an open mouth as he made his way toward the back door of his house.

Daniel had caught up with him, and Jack had busied himself making the food. Daniel had pulled out the lawn chair and set it up so that he could watch Jack, having nothing better to do than ponder why he hadn't realized these things about his friend before this.

Still bashing himself mentally over the head, Daniel retorted, "How could I have known?"

Jack turned, set down his spatula, questioned, "Are you angry, Daniel?"

"Why should I be angry?" Daniel asked, knowing he was.

"Because I've kept this sort of a secret for about nine years," Jack replied, carefully.

Daniel again pretended this wasn't getting to him. "Why did you suddenly let the cat out of the bag now?"

"I..." Jack frowned deeply, then bit on the inside of his lip before continuing, "I guess I thought it might make us closer, or something..." He sounded so hesitant, so uncertain, so unlike the Jack O'Neill that Daniel was accustomed to.

"You're barbecue is going to burn," Daniel said, changing the subject. He was too uncomfortable with the topic to continue it at this moment.

Jack took the hint and turned back to the grill. "I hope you like your hotdogs well-done, Danny," he mumbled over his shoulder.

Daniel couldn't stop the quirk of a smile from reaching his lips. So instead he lowered his head, hoping that if Jack saw him, he would only think he was avoiding the direct rays of the sun.

_Blue skies_

Talk about embarrassing...

Jack had gotten rather drunk from his "cerveza" and fallen asleep on Daniel's shoulder... Now he was waking up, and guess what that dark spot on Daniel's shoulder was. Right! A puddle of drool. Way to go, O'Neill...

"S'rry," he mumbled to Daniel, and saw his friend try to pull back the smirk forming on his lips. "Oh, go ahead and laugh at me, Daniel," Jack snapped with an annoyance spurred by embarrassment.

Daniel gazed at Jack innocently. "I wasn't going to laugh," he vowed. "Besides, I need to talk to you about your recent behavior." Why did he have to sound like a father getting ready to lecture his child?

Jack leaned back against the arm of the couch behind him and braced his hands on his knees. "What do you mean?" He tried playing dumb. Unfortunately for him, he'd already destroyed _that _illusion earlier on by speaking in another language to Daniel.

Daniel gave him a no-nonsense glare. "Are you under the influence?"

Jack's mouth dropped open. "Hunh?"

"Of something alien?" Daniel added. "Ever since you got back from Azuria, you've been behaving differently. Did something happen to you there?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Daniel," Jack lied, rising to his feet and turning to head for the bathroom. He _really_ needed to relieve himself...

"_Jack_," Daniel said in a warning tone. Jack turned to look at the younger man, seeing that he'd stood to his feet too. "What's going on?"

Jack shifted his weight...for more than one reason and tried to decide how to proceed. He could one, ignore Daniel's question and hide in the bathroom and then his bedroom by sleeping, or two, answer Daniel and, therefore, reveal a very embarrassing secret by doing so.

"Do you think maybe this can wait until later?" he wondered. "Like maybe when I'm not drunk, tired, and in need of a bathroom immediately?"

Daniel narrowed his eyes at him balefully, but replied, "Fine, but if you start doing anything else out of the ordinary, I'm taking you back to the SGC and straight to the infirmary."

Jack turned and waved his hand vaguely over his shoulder at Daniel. "Okay, whatever. I got it... Now I'm going to take a pee. Don't wait up."

He left the room despite feeling two holes being bored into the back of his neck by two VS-class (VS, standing for Very Scary) laser beam shooting eyes.

_Blue skies_

Jack awakened from the mother of all nightmares and realized he was crying. He was actually crying... How often did _that_ happen? One always heard about people who awakened from nightmares with tears on their face, but did one ever really get the opportunity to experience it first hand? Rarely. And Jack was pretty sure it was a good thing because the whole experience left him feeling disconcerted and freaked out and a lot of other negative, not very calming emotions.

Man. He had to get up and get himself a glass of water, or his brain was going to overload on all the replaying images in his mind. Besides that, he was having to listen to a running commentary on all his failures and insecurities as well. Who needed _that_ at 2:31 in the morning? Well, he could answer for at least _one_ individual.

Jack untangled his legs from the covers and launched himself out of his bed and through the door and hallway to the kitchen. He flipped on the light switch without having to search for it, and pulled open the refrigerator door only to end up staring blankly at its contents.

With a sigh, he slammed it shut and started making his way back to his bedroom, not bothering to turn out the kitchen light again. He tried to convince himself it was because he was being lazy and not because he was feeling just a little creeped out by the dark.

For some reason, though, he didn't end up back at his bedroom door. Instead, he stood in front of the threshold of the guest room, staring at the closed door as if it held the answers to the universal questions...

He was about to turn around and go back to his room, but inexplicably his hand raised toward the door and he found that it made a fist and began to knock loudly against the wood. 'Oh, crap!' he thought, 'What the heck am I doing?'

He dropped his hand and tried to turn away and flee to his bedroom, but suddenly the door opened to the guest room. Daniel stood there, appearing bed-headed and groggy. He wasn't wearing his glasses and was dressed in only a t-shirt and boxers.

"Jack," he began in gravelly annoyance, "You better be telling me that something bad happened at the SGC, or I'm going to..." He seemed irritated by his own lack of imagination, but Jack knew it was just because Daniel's brain was working a bit slower from just waking up. "Or I'm going to go back to sleep."

"I'm sorry..." Jack began sheepishly, "I shouldn't have woken you up... I'm just going to go back to bed no--" His voice cracked, and he realized it was because he had started to cry again. 'No...' This was beyond humiliating. Why hadn't she warned him this would happen?

"Jack?" Daniel questioned, his eyes widening out their sleepiness. "Are you okay?" He touched Jack's arm, then dropped his hand as if embarrassed.

"Sure, peachy," Jack lied. "It must be allergies or something," he choked out, but the escaping sob soon gave him away. He wiped his face with the back of his hand and snapped, "I'm fine. I'm going to bed." He started to turn away, and Daniel grabbed his arm.

"No, you're not okay. What's wrong? Did something happen on the planet?" Jack avoided his friend's concerned gaze.

"Oh, for crying out loud, Daniel, nothing happened to me. I swear it's allergies!" He tried to jerk his arm away, but Daniel's grip was like frozen ice.

"Then why did you wake me up?" Daniel questioned astutely. "Tell me what's going on... Please." That 'please' sounded desperate. Like maybe Daniel had gotten the idea that he was dying or something. Oh, God, could this even get any worse?

"I'm okay, Daniel," he insisted, even as tears streamed out from his eyes, and he could barely hold back the wracking sobs. "Let go of me." And that sounded rather desperate too. Like maybe he was afraid that if Daniel didn't let go soon, he _would_ die.

"No..." Daniel said, his voice too calm. "You're scaring the crap out of me. Now please tell me what the heck is going on."

Jack sobbed. "I can't. Let go, Danny. I don't want you to see me like this..."

Daniel's mouth dropped open, but he didn't even ease his grip a fraction of an inch. Instead, after a nanosecond, he grabbed Jack's other arm. By now, the places where Daniel's fingers dug into his skin were beginning to ache. "Did someone hurt you? Did they do something to alter you in some way? _What_ _the_ _heck_ happened?"

Jack couldn't stand it any longer. Here he was weeping uncontrollably in front of Daniel, and he couldn't do a darned thing to stop Daniel from seeing, knowing, being scared crap-less because of it. He ducked his head and moved forward so that he was practically hugging Daniel. But because Daniel still had a death-grip on his arms, it was more like Daniel was hugging him...

For some reason, that didn't strike him as right. It went against the laws of physics or something. Wasn't he the one who was always supposed to hug Daniel, and not the other way around? But somehow, in this weird alternate universe that he'd stumbled into, Daniel was holding _him._ Was that even possible?

_blue skies_

Jack was practically shaking he was so overwrought. Daniel couldn't wrap his mind around what was happening. He didn't want Jack to be crying in front of him like this any more than Jack wanted to be doing it. He didn't want to know that his friend was as flesh and blood human as he'd always feared.

Jack was getting up there in the age category, and every time Daniel got a good look at that nearly white hair, he started to worry about how healthy Jack was, how much longer he was going to keep breathing. How long his heart would hold out... If Daniel would be crazy enough to stick him in a Goa'uld sarcophagus if something, God forbid, ever happened to him.

Jack burrowed his head into Daniel's shoulder even further, and Daniel tensed. He didn't understand what was going on, and he didn't know how to deal with Jack when he was distraught like this. Because well, Jack had _never_ been hysterical like this before... He pulled away, following his instincts instead of his heart, and Jack stepped away and looked at him with bleary, swollen eyes.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled and started to escape down the hall, but Daniel grabbed his wrist before he could get too far.

"Wait," he said.

"Daniel," Jack spat out, "Let go of me before we end up embarrassing ourselves even further."

"I have no idea what you mean by that comment," Daniel hissed, "Something obviously happened to you on Azuria, and I think that I'm entitled to know what it was especially after all of this nonsen--"

"Nonsense, huh?" Jack wondered, tugging on his wrist in an effort to free it from Daniel's grip. "So you think this is all bull, do you? I suppose that's what you think of our friendship, too, am I right?"

"Darn it, Jack, you're behaving like an idiot!" Daniel exclaimed, "That is _not_ what I meant!"

Jack tugged on his wrist again, but, somewhat spitefully, Daniel refused to let go.

"Let go, Daniel," Jack spoke angrily, "Before you sprain my wrist."

Daniel felt as if he were getting mixed signals. First Jack had wanted to be held, and now he wanted Daniel to let him go. What was all this about anyway?

"All right," he said as calmly as possible. "But come here." Jack looked at him strangely as Daniel let go of him.

But once Daniel's fingers completely left his wrist, he drew closer. Daniel fought against every insecure emotion that told him this was the most crazy, idiotic, stupid thing he could do. He reached out with both hands, hands that had started to shake, and put them slowly and carefully around Jack O'Neill.

And even though Jack froze up immediately, he kept holding him.

"Danny..." Jack warned.

"Shush, okay?" Daniel said, "I'm having a moment here."

Jack snorted and chuckled but relaxed. "I had a bad dream... I could see Charlie lying in a Goa'uld sarcophagus. And even though it was closed, I could still see everything going on inside. I was waiting on the outside for him to come out..." Jack drew a deep, shuddering breath then continued, "It seemed to take forever when the sarcophagus finally started to open. And then it was open all the way, and I was pulling Charlie out of it... Except it wasn't Charlie; it was Klorel. I could see his eyes glowing, and they were still Charlie's eyes, but they weren't. And I woke up..and I was crying." He sniffed a little, and Daniel patted his back awkwardly.

He started to step away, but Jack said, "Wait...just..." He sounded embarrassed. "Could you wait a bit longer?" In other words, could Daniel hold him a while longer before letting go.

"Okay," Daniel agreed, and realized he was applying a bit more pressure than when he'd first put his arms around Jack.

He started to ease his grip, but Jack butted his head into Daniel's shoulder and hunched his shoulders in closer to Daniel's body. Daniel took that as a sign that he was trying to increase proximity, and squeezed more tightly again.

Jack sighed, and Daniel felt that he was still trembling slightly. "Jack...?" Daniel said uncertainly after some time had passed.

"Daniel... I sort of lied. It wasn't _just_ Charlie in the coffin. First it was Skaara... and then Charlie. And then it was you."

Daniel felt himself go very still, and Jack sensing it, also seized up.

What did that _mean_ exactly? Charlie was Jack's son, and of course he would have nightmares of that profound loss. And Skaara had also been like a son to Jack. Or at least like a little brother... But _him_? Was it just because he was Jack's friend? Or could it possibly mean that, subconsciously, Jack had connected the dots?

Jack spoke, "Daniel?"

Daniel realized he still had his arms around Jack, and he stepped away suddenly.

Jack gazed at him warily, as if he were afraid of being struck. "I don't think I should have told you that..."

Daniel stared, mouth hanging open. It was all he could do for a few minutes. And in the meantime, Jack fidgeted terribly.

"I don't know what to say, Jack," he offered lamely in the end.

Jack's expression fell, and he said dully, "Just say you'll forget I even said anything."

Daniel's mouth gaped open once again. "Jack--"

"Don't." Jack held up a hand. "I'll see you in the morning." He turned and practically fled from Daniel's presence.

Daniel stared after him, but finally turned and went back into the guest room. It was a very long time before he finally drifted off to sleep.

_blue skies_

So he was avoiding Jack. It wasn't like he hadn't done it before... There had been plenty of occasions when Daniel had been angry and just felt that he needed some time alone to sort through his thoughts and simmer down. But this time seemed different, and that ate at his conscience.

Maybe it was because Jack had given him what was tantamout to a declaration of love, and _Daniel_ had recieved it with something far less than graciousness. But how had Jack expected him to react to something like that? Really?

Was he just supposed to say, "Oh, thanks Jack, I always wanted a Dad like you. I'm so gosh-darned lucky that you chose me to be your replacement son." It seemed too putridly mushy. But he was being unfair.

Jack wasn't fake like that. And whatever issues he had left over from Charlie, Daniel was pretty sure he hadn't transferred any of them to Daniel. Sure, Daniel had seen it half a dozen times where they would run into a kid, and Jack would take said kid under his wing as if it was his own child.

It was hard seeing Jack's heart get torn out over and over again over another child that he would never get to be able to keep. And sometimes a child he wouldn't even be able to save...

But Daniel sensed that wasn't the case here, at least not completely. Maybe at first Jack had seen something childlike and in need of looking after in Daniel, but Daniel didn't believe that that was basis enough for the survival of their friendship. And that meant that it wasn't a strong enough reason for Jack feeling the way he claimed he felt.

Which was what way? Had Jack really come out and said it? "Daniel, I see you as a son" ? No, but Daniel didn't exactly need him to. He could infer certain things. He was a linguist after all... As if that had anything to do with it. It was probably more true to say that, after all this time, he could read Jack like a book...

And yet, it seemed he still knew nothing about him.

_blue sky_

Jack had gone back to Azuria.

He'd told Allie to reverse whatever it was she'd done to his brain, and she'd complied with an air that said she felt disappointed to be doing so. As if somehow she knew it hadn't worked out as planned. Maybe she did... She could read minds, after all.

He'd come home, and he'd been home for a while now. Sitting, and drinking beer. Vegetating.

There was a knock on the door. A rather distinctive knock, playful and following a beat. Daniel. "Jack? Are you in there? Do I need to call the fire department?"

"The door's open!" Jack called back in full irritation mode. He tried to take another swig from his beer, only to realize it was empty. He drained the last drop from it and threw it onto the pile growing at the base of his coffee table.

"Relaxing, I see," Daniel observed as he entered the living room. He stood, awkwardly, his hands in his trouser pockets. He was wearing a very Daniel-esque ensemble, Jack noted. It reminded him of old times. Daniel liked to wear more modern things now-a-days. But today it was beige slacks, a striped, button-up, long-sleeved shirt. With light-blue and dark-blue lines all intersecting, forming a neverending pattern.

Jack's vision blurred when Daniel changed positions unexpectly. He sat down on the the coffee table and leaned in close to Jack. Jack frowned and tried to refocus his eyes on Daniel. "Jack?"

"Uh, huh?" he wondered, licking his lips and clearing his throat. There was something really odd about this whole encounter. Shouldn't he know what was happening? Why did he feel as if he should be making ammends? Or maybe it was Daniel who was here to apologize. Maybe that's why he was wearing the scholarly clothing: he wanted to impress...

Nah. That didn't sound right. "Jack, you've had too much to drink," Daniel said, gently, chidingly.

"What? I thought that was cola," Jack lied.

"Hmm," Daniel replied, sceptically. "Maybe I should come back later..."

"No!" Jack exclaimed, and caught Daniel's wrist in his hand. Shouldn't his reflexes have been more impaired than that? "Stay..." He practically begged.

Daniel shrugged. "Okay... Jack... I--" He seemed to be having trouble saying whatever it was he wanted to say.

Jack tried to help. "Look, you can tell me whatever... I probably won't remember it later anyway." He smiled wryly, and Daniel gave him one of his quirky little grins in answer.

"Do you see me as a son?"

Woah. He wasn't expecting _that_. He remembered something about the past week. Yeah, he'd told Daniel a thing or two about how he really felt about him. Well, maybe it was time to own up to whatever he'd said or done to ruin their friendship yet again.

"Daniel... I..." It looked like he was having a little trouble too.

"Look, Jack," Daniel said, a twinkle in his light-blue eyes. "You can tell me anything, and I won't say a thing about it later. You probably won't remember anyway."

Jack gazed at his friend for the longest time, assessing. Then he told him. He didn't need to be drunk to say this anymore. He didn't need to have an alien tamper with his psychology. He'd learned something from what Allie had done: He could trust Daniel.

He could _always_ trust Daniel. Just the same as he could count on the sky being blue.

_**Epilogue**_

_"Blue Sky"_

It was sunny outside and when Jack looked up at the sky, he was reminded of some place... He just couldn't quite put his finger on when or where he'd seen something similar to this cerulean wonder overhead.

He shrugged it off and entered the SGC. He was feeling exceptionally good today, for some reason, despite the hangover. Even nostalgic, if that was the right word... Maybe he meant melancholy. Nope, completely off...

Daniel caught up with him in the elevator, and Jack cheerfully said his hellos. "Hi, Jack," Daniel answered just as cheerfully, even more so, if Jack was reading his friend correctly. Yes, he definitely detected the hint of a trademark quirky Daniel grin. Lips barely parted, teeth showing just a little on the side of his lips that was tilted upward the most.

"Something up, Daniel?" he wondered, with happy suspiciousness.

"No," Daniel said too quickly, giving him a wide-eyed, innocent look. "No, no. Why do you ask?" He questioned, and that enigmatic little smile had crept onto his face again, lighting up his blue eyes. Jack was getting Deja-vu again...

"Did..." Jack pointed his finger at Daniel. "...you come over yesterday, by any chance?"

"No," Daniel said, looking for all the world as if he was truly contemplating Jack's question. "Not that I know of, why?"

Jack narrowed his eyes, but couldn't quite pinpoint why or what Daniel was lying about. "Right. Well, if you did... I was drunk, so I don't remember," he informed matter-of-factly.

Daniel nodded seriously, which was clue in itself that he was hiding something. He usually gave Jack looks when he said something off the wall like he just had. "You know Jack, I'm just glad that you're all right after that little trip to Azuria and all..."

"Hunh?" Jack wondered, drawing a complete blank. "What's Azuria? Sounds like the name of a paint."

Daniel gazed at him with true surprise. "You don't remember?" He sounded completely flabbergasted.

"Have absolutely no clue what you're talking about," Jack affirmed. For a moment, he thought he saw Daniel's face fall in disappointment. What was that about?

"Well, looks like maybe you need to take a trip to the infirmary after all," Daniel commented.

_Jack, are you under the influence?_

"That's weird," Jack muttered, massaging his temple.

"What?" Daniel said, placing a hand on Jack's upper arm.

Jack glanced at him in surprise. Daniel hardly ever touched him, unless he was hurt or it was absolutely essential. "I thought I remember you asking me something... But I can't place the conversation."

"Hunh," Daniel said, thoughtfully. Jack frowned at him, happened to look down, and noticed Daniel's shirt: light blue and dark-blue stripes, all running over each other, and weaving in and out. Overlapping endlessly... And when his eyes momentarily lost focus, it seemed like he was on an alien planet gazing up at a bright, blue sky.

"Jack, are you all right?" Daniel wondered, he leaned over and punched the floor for the infirmary even as he spoke.

"Yeah, I think so." Jack looked Daniel in the eyes and a feeling accompanied the odd visual he'd just experienced. "Daniel..."

Daniel smiled slowly. "Hey, it's okay. I'm not going anywhere."

Jack, confused as he was, somehow understood.

_The End_


End file.
